


SlideShow

by theycallmethesunshineboy (T_Gay_Kippen)



Series: The Dark Corners [2]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies), The Isle of the Lost Series - Melissa de la Cruz
Genre: Carlos de Vil-centric, Child Abuse, F/M, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-08-13 04:01:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20167804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/T_Gay_Kippen/pseuds/theycallmethesunshineboy
Summary: At a gala fighting for more Isle Kids to be brought to Auradon, Mal and Carlos have prepared a presentstion that may be disturbing to some viewers.





	SlideShow

**Author's Note:**

> I promise I'll start focusing on the other VKs eventually but Carlos is my first baby boy

Carlos paced, wringing his hands and squeezing the stuffed dog tight enough to remember why they didn't bring Dude along instead. He had almost forgotten why he had agreed to this, sharing such private, terrifying things in front of an audience, but he remembered the kids still on the Isle. His age and the ones he showed how to hide from their parents. He remembered seeing and feeling their fear.

He looked out to the crowd, nobody under voting age was allowed at the seminar, but there were some teachers at Auradon Prep in attendance. People who knew him...

Nerves sunk his stomach as Mal came up behind him. 

"Are you ready to do this?" The girl asked gently, applying grounding pressure to the boy's shoulder. "If you have even a bit of doubt, I can change the plan-"

Carlos cut her off. 

"No, I'm fine..." he smiled. "I'm tougher than I look."

The pair shared a smile as the stage lit up.

The fairy girl smirked at her friend. "Showtime!"

* * *

The two Isle kids walked to center stage, a cloud of clapping surrounding them. Carlos took a seat at the center, still clutching a faux dalmatian. 

"This presentation will be a bit different!" Mal announced proudly. "Fairy Godmother has given me permission to use my magic to show everybody what life on the Isle can be like for children!"

The crowd's cheers only served to twist Carlos' stomach more, how can they be so excited for this? 

"Carlos has given me consent to show two memories from childhood!" Mal announced, putting her arms on the boy's shoulders and willing him to relax. "This presentation may be disturbing to some viewers!"

And with that, Mal put her hands in front of Carlos' face, willing his eyes closed. The girl mumbled in dead languages and as the boy drifted off, the screen in the room lit up. 

* * *

_There was a boy, young with black and white hair. He was maybe six or seven and sitting in a dirty living room. A man was next to him as well as a boy maybe 10. Everybody had classic de Vil hair and colors. Not to mention freckles, speckled like dirt on their pale bodies._

_The man patted the older boy's back. "Get him fixed up, Diego. I'll handle my sister..."_

_Diego nodded solemnly, but turned to Carlos with a big fake smile. The kid reached one arm out to the older boy, but Diego pushed Carlos' hand away and went to examine him in a professional fashion. Carlos yelped when the other boy touched his shoulder. _

_"Oh, it got popped away from all your other arm bones!" Diego declared, his voice unsettlingly cheery as he relocated the child's shoulder. "How long ago did Mommy start acting sick?"_

_The child held up three fingers._

_"Three days?" A nod. "And how long ago did she get your arm?" _

_This time it was one finger. _

_"The first day?" Another nod._

_"You gotta tell me and my dad when she gets like this, Carlos..." Diego kept his voice light and began searching the younger boy for more injuries. "We don't want you getting all hurt like this..."_

_"Mommy said to stay quiet," this was the first time in the interaction Carlos spoke, and his voice had Diego searching his neck and locating large, band shaped bruises. "Doesn't want me runnin' 'round spreading her business..."_

_Diego looked sad. "That's because where your Mommy is from, doing this would get you taken away. But not here, Kiddo. You can run your mouth to me or Uncle Cecil to your heart's desire, okay?" _

_Carlos nodded as he was carried to the bathroom and stripped down. While Mal had preserved Carlos' pride, the view of Carlps' skinny, bruised frame was still used as a shock tactic. _

_Diego wiped down the botton of the shower and placed Carlos into it. The boy nealed, hissing in pain. _

_"Got your knees too, huh, Kiddo?" Diego sighed, turning on the faucet and pelting the child below him with yellowed water that raised goosebumps along his freckles. Carlos nodded sadly, shivering as he applied soap to his hair. At least it could be assumed as soap, it was clear and dirty with the consistency of aloe vera stirred with mushed bananas._

_"Where is Uncle Cecil?" Carlos asked. His voice was small amd scared._

_"He's helping your Mommy feel better, Carlos. Don't worry."_

_"Is Mommy ever going to **be** better, Diego?" Big eyes stared up at the older cousin, filled woth more hope than ever should be allowed on the Isle and making the response harder to deliver._

_"I don't think so, Buddy. Mommy's got a lotta problems we can't fix." Tears welled up in both sets of eyes. "But Uncle Cecil and .I are gonna work super hard to make her feel better, okay?"_

_Diego observed his cousin's body, most scrapes and marrs in his skin familiar, but a few newer scratches and cigarette burns to soothe. The young child was rubbed over with a towel that seemed to smudge dirt on him more than dry him and set to the side to dress himself and try to shake the conversation from his mind._

* * *

Four members had left the room mid showing and over half of the spectaors were crying.

Up on stage, Carlos seemed to be asleep, but he suffocated the toy in his arms.

After a brief intermission, the screen started up again.

* * *

_Carlos was jumping into a door that looked like it belonged to a treehouse. This time he looked to be a bit closer to his current age, maybe 13 or 14. _

_The boy reached in his pocket, retrieving a slice of rotting fish and revealing blood dripping around his jacket sleeve. A cat crawled out from underneath a chair as the teen threw the meat down._

_"Evie would flay me alive if she knew that I let the pirates tear me up for a cat," Carlos reached his hand out to pat the creature. "But you know you're worth it, Beelzebub."_

_The cat purred and Carlos left it alone to eat. The boy moved around the treehouse to what looked like a tinkering corner. On a desk was a computer resembling Frankenstein's monster and the inventions around it were no different. Beside the scrap pile was an open notebook with clothing designs._

_Carlos plopped himself onto the chair, pulling off his jacket to reveal a few long gashes around his shoulder and forearm._

_Carlos hissed, pouring yellow-brown water around the gashes, trying not to get the dirty liquid into the wounds. The boy took a rag and cleaned the blood from around the area and took out a needle and thread, the needle in which he was quick to put into his skin._

_With oddly steady hands, Carlos sewed up his broken skin and tiredd it up with what looked like basic multipurpose thread. _

* * *

There were honestly no words, the room was quiet as Mal allowed her friend out of his trance. Carlos quickly bowed and moved away backstage to Jay's comforting arms, embarrassed. 

Mal finished with a short lecture, highlighting the ways in which the Isle children could be helped or rescued with little fuss from the villain parents.

With a gentle curtsey, Mal left the stage to also comfort her friend. 

That night, new pages needed to be made for signatures on the petition for rescue in the Isle of the Lost. 


End file.
